


the new world looked good (sitting on the couch)

by joonswig



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Anyways, Domestic Fluff, Feelings Realization, M/M, Mutual Pining, Unreliable Narrator, god this is genuinely my third plotless fic and like. can i please just write sth coherent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 14:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18606190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joonswig/pseuds/joonswig
Summary: mirador de colom is supposed to point to the new world, but it's pointing south instead





	the new world looked good (sitting on the couch)

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place in barcelona btw its pretty crucial to know the map // title is a reference to the poem "new world" by derek walcott

changbin’s last date with jaehyun is awkward for two reasons. one, jaehyun isn’t yet aware it’s their last one. two, jaehyun and changbin have been awkward for the entirety of the whooping three months they were together. 

 

when changbin says he wants to meet up, jaehyun tells him of a park near la rambla they could go to. changbin would rather go somewhere with remote shadow, or preferably air conditioning, but he agrees, anyway.

 

“where is it exactly?” he asks. 

 

_“from mirador de colom take passeig josep carner,”_ jaehyun tells him over the phone. _“you have to, uh, follow where columbus is pointing and pass the maritime museum.”_

 

on his way there, changbin begins to feel a little guilty. he doesn’t know why he prolonged something he knew was inevitable one week into dating jaehyun. perhaps it was denial, wishful thinking that they’d click once they get to know each other better. maybe it was wanting to give jaehyun a shot, because he is sweet, kind, smart, funny and he would be an idiot for letting him pass by. it could be the futile attempt to remain oblivious of the frankly crippling realisation that changbin has a type and whoever doesn’t fit it is out of the question. 

 

but with every day he was reminded of just how not into jaehyun he was.

 

it’s not that changbin doesn’t like him, in the most basic, platonic understanding of the word. because he does, jaehyun being sweet, kind and all of the above. but so is his cousin chaeyoung, so is his dentist luisa, so is approximately 78.2% of the people he just passed by on las rambla. jaehyun may be more attractive, younger and less genetically related to changbin, but it still doesn’t cut it. 

 

changbin once asked his friend jisung what he likes about his boyfriend, minho. without much thought, jisung answered that minho hisses whenever they take the metro and the station names are announced in spanish, not catalan. 

 

_“he thinks he’s a freedom fighter,” jisung said with a fond smile, “it’s endearing. last week, he wrote his third letter of complaint to the generalitat about this.”_

 

_“and you like that?”_

 

_“yeah,” jisung nods, “he ignored me the entire night, but it was nice to watch.”_

 

jaehyun doesn’t send the catalan government letters of complaint. changbin doesn’t particularly mind that, but if anyone asked him what made jaehyun stand out from all the other people, so much that changbin decided to give him three months of his life, he wouldn’t know the answer. worse, he’d make up a lie on the spot, so that he wouldn’t look like a dunce. nothing quite as genuine as jisung 

 

he spots jaehyun waiting at the gates of jardins del baluard, walking up with an awkward expression, “uh, hi.”

 

“hi,” jaehyun hugs him, rather half-heartedly, but presses a kiss to his cheek, “how are you?”

 

“good, yeah. how are your classes?”

 

“nice.” they stand in silence for a short while, before jaehyun proposes they go inside. they walk up the stone stairs, gravel scratching the surface under their feet.

 

“kinda hate the columbus dude,” changbin tries to make a conversation.

 

“uh, okay?” jaehyun seems pretty confused.

 

“i mean, yeah. it’s just that i see him every day at work and like, kinda wanna snap off his finger or something,” jaehyun smiles. 

 

“i see.”

 

the park isn’t as pretty as others in barcelona tend to be, benches rusty, with paint chipping off, gardens unkempt and wilting. still, it’s a nice view of the port, so he doesn’t mind. 

 

“so, how did you find this place?” he asks.

 

“oh, i googled it.”

 

“ah.”

 

it’s how hanging out with jaehyun usually plays out, both of them with sticks perpetually stuck up their asses. it’s a dynamics, one that changbin has grown bored of. he proposes they sit down.

 

“you wanted to talk, right?” jaehyun says.

 

“yeah, yeah, uh…” he pauses, “jaehyun, we’re, like, together.”

 

jaehyun nods, slowly, “yeah, we are.”

 

“okay,” silence, “what do you like about me?”

 

“well,” jaehyun clears his throat, “for starters, i think you’re really smart. and you’re funny, too. you’re always really sweet.”

 

changbin chuckles at the irony. at least he knows he’s making the right decision, “i think we should break up.”

 

when he returns home, the lift is out of service, so he climbs up the stairs with a grimace. he digs out the keys from his back pocket and opens the door. his flatmate must be home, judging by the shoes in the hallway. 

 

“felix, i’m home,” he calls out, weakly. 

 

he hears shuffling from inside the apartment and soon enough, felix emerges, still in pyjamas, “oh, good morning!”

 

“hi,” he sighs, “it’s like, 3 p.m.”

 

“and i have a dysfunctional sleep schedule, get with the program,” felix reminds him, “damn bitch, not looking too well, who hurt you?”

 

“the lift’s out of service,” changbin explains. “and i broke up with jaehyun.”

 

felix’s amused grin quickly turned into an expression of concern, “oh, my god, c’mon, let me cook you something.”

 

changbin snorts, it’s so typically felix, “how does this solve the issue of jaehyun?”

 

“it doesn’t, but i’m hungry as fuck and that asshole never takes you out to get food, so i assume you are, too,” felix scowls, “plus, guess which culinary skilled twink popped over this morning with a paella for us to share.”

 

“why do you keep calling hyunjin a twink?” changbin follows him to the kitchen, felix taking out the paella from the fridge and stuffing it into the microwave. 

 

“have you, like, seen him, ever?” felix presses the button and grabs two plates from the cupboard. “do you want some tea? we were running low on that green tea you like, but i bought more yesterday.”

 

“thanks, you’re an angel” changbin grabs the kettle and fills it up with water, “i’m gonna make you coffee. you’re still probably groggy.”

 

“hell yeah, baby,” felix grins, rubbing his eyes, “i can barely comprehend what’s happening, currently. still don’t get how you work morning shifts.”

 

“life’s tough when you have to pay rent from your mall barista paycheck,” changbin grabs felix’s favourite vanilla flavoured coffee and adds two teaspoons straight to felix’s high school musical cup. the microwave pings and changbin has to remind felix not to touch the bottom of the plate like he always does, or he’ll burn his fingers. 

 

“thanks,” felix smiles, sheepishly, “i would have touched it.”

 

“you always do,” changbin smiles.

 

before felix walks out to the living room with the food, he turns to changbin, “you know the drill, right? one teaspoon—”

 

“—of sugar and 2 tablespoons of cream, who do you think i am?” he jokes, pouring in the water in both cups. he takes the flower shaped silicone lids that felix got from ale-hop and covers the drinks. 

 

“so,” felix says, cutting a generous piece and dropping it onto changbin’s plate. “the jaehyun guy. never liked him, by the way.”

 

“i know,” changbin replies, “you always do that funny thing when you meet people you hate where you try to smile but your lips are pursed and you look like a clown.”

 

“shut up, i don’t,” felix giggles, “but like, he broke up with you, or?”

 

“wow, harsh, you think i was the dumpee? no, i broke up with him, for the record.”

 

“and how do you feel about it?” felix asks. changbin sighs.

 

“i’m probably gonna sound like an asshole, but pretty good, come to think of it,” he stares ahead through the window. they live just on the outskirts of gracia, but the view isn’t phenomenal, just a block of flats across the street. he spots the catalan flag suspended on the rails of one of the balconies.

 

“why am i wasting hyunjin’s paella on you, then?” felix jokes, but cuts him another slice for good measure. his hands are small on the knife handle, something changbin finds amusing. 

 

“i just realised this whole thing was kinda pointless. i feel like an ass for, dunno, leading him on?” 

 

“okay, from an outsider’s perspective, i see it kind of differently, y’know?” 

 

“yeah?”

 

“yeah. both of you cared for each other on a similar level,” felix says, “i always thought both of you dated out of convenience.”

 

changbin smiles wryly to himself. felix is dangerously perceptive, has the ability to read changbin deeper than anyone else. it’s what makes them work well together, neither of them having to verbalise how they feel for the other to understand. 

 

“hey, unrelated, but can i ask you something?” he changes the subject. “actually, it’s kind of related, but play along.”

 

“fine,” felix shuffles on the couch so that his head is rested against its back, one leg perched on the other in the air. felix isn’t one to care for sitting like a normal person or protecting his already hunched spine from more damage. “go ahead, twunk.”

 

“twunk?”

 

“twink plus hunk, now get with it.”

 

“can’t you like, use dude or mate or anything else?”

 

“is that the question? then no, i can’t,” felix jokes and changbin threatens to stab him in the eye with a fork.

 

“okay, so. imagine we’re, like, uh, no let me word it differently. is there something you like about me?”

 

felix’s eyes widen, “well, you’re, like, my friend? so i like you? as a friend?”

 

“no, no,” changbin corrects himself, “no, like, what is something i do or like, something i am that makes you like me. damn, it’s weird, i’m sorry. you don’t have to answer.”

 

“no, no, it’s fine,” felix assures him. “uh, okay. you mean it like, platonically or like if i were jaehyun—?”

 

“no, you. in whatever way, i don’t care,” he lies.

 

“hm, fine. uh, i like your laugh,” felix says.

 

“my laugh?”

 

“yeah,” felix nods, eyes focused on the ceiling. “you have this, dunno, boyish laugh? like, it’s loud and kind of obnoxious. and when something is really funny, you literally just go ‘HA! HA! HA!’ and your eyes go all wide. dunno, your facial expression is really weird.” he can see the corners of felix’s mouth shift upward ever so slightly.

 

“so i have a weird laugh and that’s what you like about me?”

 

“essentially,” felix confirms, “i like it that you talk to our yucca when you water her. and curse when you repot her. i like that you work near an aquarium because i can visit you and then go look at fishies.”

 

“you love fishies,” changbin comments.

 

“yeah. it’s a pity that they have to spend their days looking at that asshole columbus. you, too. i pity you. the dickwad isn’t even pointing in the right direction.”

 

changbin bursts out laughing, holds his stomach as he bends in half, trying to catch his breath, “god!”

 

“what’s so funny?” felix looks confused.

 

“you’re right. you’re right,” changbin slaps his forehead, “he’s pointing in the wrong direction.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> [buy me a ko-fi <3](http://ko-fi.com/joonswig)


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